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Quite sad

Saw this also - what's really sad is a woman feels that suicide is the only way out of this situation due to the humiliation. Another escort is also mentioned who also committed suicide due to being exposed.

Tarpon Springs police said a body they believed to be 52-year-old Deborah Jeane Palfrey of Vallejo was found in a shed near her mother's mobile home Thursday morning. She left a suicide note, but police did not disclose its contents or how she died.

The District of Columbia U.S. attorney's office, which spent years investigating and prosecuting Palfrey, was aware of the media reports about her death and was awaiting confirmation from law enforcement, said spokeswoman Channing Phillips.

Palfrey was convicted Apr. 15 by a federal jury of running a prostitution service that catered to members of Washington's political elite, including U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican.

She had denied her escort service engaged in prostitution, saying that if any of the women engaged in sex acts for money, they did so without her knowledge.

Palfrey caused a sensation last year when she announced that to raise money for her defense, she intended to sell her phone records to any news outlet willing to pay. Palfrey said her defunct business, Pamela Martin & Associates, was "a legal, high-end erotic fantasy service" that serviced elite clients.

She was convicted on all counts she faced: Money laundering, using the mail for illegal purposes and racketeering. Palfrey faced a maximum of 55
years in prison and was free pending her sentencing July 24.

Prosecutors said Palfrey operated the prostitution service for 13 years.

Three of Palfrey's clients testified during the weeklong trial in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, explaining how they found the service, how often they called, what they were hoping for and whether they got it during their visits.

"When a man agrees to pay $250 for 90 minutes with a woman, what do most men expect in that time?" prosecutor Daniel Butler said during closing arguments Monday. "In that context, it's pretty clear. Most men want sex."

But the trial concluded without revealing many new details about the service or its clients. Vitter was among possible witnesses, but did not take the stand.

Vitter, a first-term senator who is married and has four children, had acknowledged being involved with Palfrey's escort service and apologized for what he called a "very serious sin." But he avoided commenting further.

One of the escort service employees was former University of Maryland, Baltimore County, professor Brandy Britton, who was arrested on prostitution charges in 2006. She committed suicide in January before she was scheduled to go to trial.

Last year, Palfrey said she, too, was humiliated by her prostitution charges, but said: "I guess I'm made of something that Brandy Britton wasn't made of."

Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the "D.C. Madam"
The good legal briefs, the terrible defense at trial and the Tragic Suicide
A history lesson about the waste of resources and lives over in private consenting adult sexwork
Outcall as in her service - legal in almost all the world except the U.S.

May 1, 2008 The Tragic Ending
Jeane Palfrey hangs herself on mother's property in Tampa, Suicide notes were found near the body, police say. Palfrey's 76-year-old mother, Blanche Palfrey, found her daughter hanged using a nylon rope from a metal beam on the ceiling of a storage shed outside her home,

One of Palfery's escort service employees was former University of Maryland, Baltimore County, professor Brandy Britton, who was arrested on prostitution charges in 2006. She committed suicide in January before she was scheduled to go to trial.

Summary from earlier reports
As I have extensively reported on, I had been in e-mail discussion with her civil attorney Palfrey lawyer Montgomery Blair Sibley.I read some of his motions which were excellent including using Lawrence vs Texas (see my articles at http://www.sexwork.com/legal/Lawrence_Index.html ) But her criminal attorney, Preston Burton at trial had in my view, a terribly lacking defense.

At trial her only defense was that she didn't know sex was going on with her escorts. I had suggested an aggressive defense using both Lawrence vs Texas and the fact that clients only paid for time not for sex and whatever happened during time in private with consenting adults with no money exchanged for sex, was not a crime.

The trial was a total disaster with only the "she didn't know" defense used which prior escorts easily proved wrong and the defense rested from what I have read with no other defense. It was a slam dunk guilty verdict by the jury.

She was found guilty April 15 of money laundering, racketeering and mail fraud and faced a maximum 55-year prison term at her sentencing, which was scheduled for July 24.

Was the DC Madam Murdered?

Over the past few hours, the headling has changed from "DC Madam Commits Suicide" to "DC Madam Found Dead". Was she murdered by DC politicians whose names were in her black book? The high & mighty "johns" can also be very powerful people & some might go to extremes in order to "silence" people who have information which might ruin their careers....their lives.

But all her money was taken under RICO, she would be pennyless and homeless when she got out of prison. That sadly was too much for her to take. She also had been in prison years ago for prostitution related crimes and said she would never return.

But all her money was taken under RICO, she would be pennyless and homeless when she got out of prison. That sadly was too much for her to take. She also had been in prison years ago for prostitution related crimes and said she would never return.

Dave,

Do you have an estimate of how much money and effort we spend to enforce laws against prostitution and to incarcerate those convicted?

What is it about the US? We are the only country in the world (outside of a few Islamic Republics) that you can't have a drink until you are 21 (but you can get your head blown off in Iraq at 17), we waste millions on drug enforcement to chase down pot heads, And, outside of a few counties in Las Vegas, you can't pay an SP to help you achieve an orgasm?